


Just the Way of the World

by Ruuger



Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Gen, Season/Series 01, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-24
Updated: 2010-05-24
Packaged: 2017-10-09 16:50:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/89578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lisbon is the only one who knows the whole truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just the Way of the World

He closes cases.

That's what she keeps telling herself, every time she has to bail him out from trouble or fix some horrible mess he's managed to create. He's an invaluable asset to the team, and if that means putting up with him treating the whole world as his own private Goldberg machine, so be it. Because he closes cases.

Sometimes, though, she wonders. Because unlike the others, she knows him. Oh, they all talk about him, about how he's untrustworthy, unreliable, unstable, unhinged. But she's the only one who really _knows_. Knows about his past, his plans, his obsession - knows where the act ends and the terrifying reality begins.

(but she knows that he knows that she knows)

And she wonders.

Every time he gives a pause when he looks at a body, every time his eyes light up at some new lead about Red John; every time she wonders if she will be able to stop him when the time comes. To keep him from hurting himself or others if - when - he finally spirals out of control. Sometimes she looks in his eyes and thinks that she can almost see the terrible emptiness inside him, but then he smiles, all charming mischief and feigned innocence, and she wonders if it's all just what he wants her to think.

So she bails him out and cleans up the chaos he leaves behind. Looks away when the truth seems too frightening to consider.

Because he closes cases.


End file.
